A. HIGHLAND CHIEF

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 197, 19 July 1935, Page 16

A. HIGHLAND CHIEF

HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. ROYAL CONGRATULATIONS . Hundreds of Macleans gathered at Duart Castle. Isle of Mull, in May, from many parts of the world to pay homage to the chief of the clean on the occasion of his hundredth birthday anniversary. The following telegram to tho chief. Sir Fitzßoy Donald Maclean of Duart, was received from the King:— I am delighted to learn you are celebrating your one hundredth birthday to-day, and I send you heartiest congratulations from the Queen and myself on this memorable occasion. There can be few living who took part in the Crimean War or who can boast so long a service os yours, and I know that this is a proud day for the clan of which you are the distinguished chief. Sir Fitzßoy Maclean is one of the most romantic figures in Scotland today, says the London Times. When he was 17 his commission in the 7th Dragoon Guards was signed by the Duke of Wellington, and he is one of tho few survivors of those who took part in the Crimean campaign. He was awarded the Sebastopol Medal for conspicuous bravery at the Siege of Sebastopol. Ho celebrated his hundred birthday anniversary amid remarkable demonstrations of affection and loyalty from bis clansmen. Not even on that day 23 years ago when the chief redeemed his youthful pledge to recover and restore Duart Castle, the ancestral home of the Macleans, which for more than 200 years had been out of .tho possession of his family, was there such a gathering of the clansmen.

FROM HOME AND ABROAD. They came from all parts of the United Kingdom, from tho Dominions and tho United States, from France and Scandinavia. Led by Hector Maclean, the elan piper, playing a march which he had specially composed for the occasion, they marched to the castle, where they wore received by Captain Charles Maclean, son of the chief. Sir Fitzßoy Maclean was confined to his room and was unable to take a personal part in the celebrations. Mr William Maclean, secretary of the Clan Maclean Association, read letters and telegrams which had been received from clansmen from all parts of the globe. Professor Magnus Maclean, president of the association, presented the chief with an illuminated address, and the clan bard, the Very Rev. Dr Lauchlan Mac Lean Watt, a former- Moderator of the Church of Scotland, read a poem which he had written for tho occasion. Two volumes, containing the signatures of nearly 4000 Macleans in all parts of the world, were presented to the chief by Mrs Maclean of Ardgour. While the aged chief sat in an upper room, the hundreds of clansmen drank loyal toasts in his honour. Each received a portion of a huge birthday cake which was adorned with a hundred candles. In the evening, a bonfire was lit on a high promontory in Mull, and there was a fireworks display. TO THE MACLEAN OF DUART. Old Duart, chief of all the warrior clan, Who hold the honoured Highland name Maclean, Upon the rocks of Mull live out your reign By right of Chieftaincy and splendid span Of years outliving all your fellow man Amid the mountains mantling ail the main, Whose Hebridean tides still wax and wane The same since Northern Tide or Time began. And now a hundred of the years you know, F.resli blood you trod upon the warstained field But yesterday. You saw the Alma yield To men who died four-score of years ago. Your youth was bravely tempered then and steeffed By long-quenched Russian fire: Crimean snow I —Shane Leslie